THE LESGHIAN MOUNTAINS.
Gerdaoul--Shooting partridges--Native wine-vaults--Expedition
among the hills--Native houses--An inhospitable village--A
dangerous ride--A welcome reception--Shepherd-boys--The
Lesghians--Russian love for the Czar--Unsuitable
education--Mountain-climbing--Magnificent scenery--Red
deer--Vegetation--A chamois--A weary descent--A
happy people--Photographing the scenery--A
‘baboushka’--‘Developing’ our photographs--A mountain
châlet--The snow peaks--Wild goats and sheep--Difficult
mountaineering--An alluring chase--Suspended over a
precipice--A bleak night’s lodging--Mountain turkeys--Black
pheasants--Lammergeiers--Advice to travellers--Return to
Goktchai.
The entire population of Gerdaoul is Armenian, and the village, like
most Armenian villages, is a thriving one. The Armenians are almost
as good colonists as the Germans; thrifty, sober, hard-working, and
astute, they are invariably better off than their neighbours, who as
invariably call them thieves, and detest them heartily. In the case
of the Armenians of Gerdaoul I hoped they wronged them, for I was
certainly very hospitably received and honestly treated there. The
women of the village kept out of our way for the most part, though we
constantly caught glimpses of their figures flitting about, busy with
some household work, bringing home the cattle, or carpet-making.
Before almost every house stood a large frame, constructed after the
manner of the wool-work frames of English ladies, only that it was as
large almost as the entire face of the hut. On these, without any copy
to work from, the Armenian villagers worked those carpets, which are
sold in Tiflis as Persian of a second quality, or as avowedly Armenian,
from Shusha or Shemakha.
There is not unfrequently another and a smaller frame covered with
canvas, on which are daubs of a brilliant colour, standing in the
doorway beside the carpet frame. This is for quite another purpose, and
is the property of the young men of the establishment. Armed with this
gaudy shield and his old gun the Armenian fowler will procure as many
red-legs as he needs for the pot. The _modus operandi_ is as follows. A
covey of birds having been found, the man approaches with his shield in
front of him, so that from the first the birds never see their enemy.
When the attention of the covey has been secured, the gunner stops, and
planting his shield before him, watches the birds through a loophole
in its centre. At first they probably retire before the strange thing
that comes towards them, but as soon as it stops they stop too. Then
perhaps the shield is gradually drawn back; as gradually, with heads
craning forward, the birds follow. For some time there is a struggle
between curiosity and fear; eventually curiosity gains the day, and the
whole covey comes up to within some twenty yards of the snare, eagerly
talking the matter over amongst themselves as they come. Suddenly the
gunner gives a shrill whistle: instantly all the birds run together;
and in that moment the charge of shot cuts through them, and leaves
two-thirds of their number dead on the ground. Yet so foolish are they
that, some of the Armenians told me, unless the gunner showed himself,
the covey would keep reassembling round the snare until the last bird
was killed. Thus covey after covey has been destroyed; and although the
red-legged partridge is as numerous in these hills as mosquitoes in
summer, still the Government has thought fit to pronounce the use of
these deadly engines illegal, and to impose a heavy fine for the use
of them. Of course in these hills the law is a dead letter, and the
Armenians will very soon exterminate the bird that now swarms around
them.
As I strolled through the village before continuing my journey, I
noticed several large mounds rising abruptly in the streets, like large
ant-hills. These I found on inquiry were the doors to the Armenian
villagers’ cellars, and beneath each of them lay buried many a huge red
jar of good native wine. Easy as it would be to open these unguarded
vaults and abstract the contents, the wine is perfectly safe, as the
community is too small for theft to escape unnoticed. At the birth
of every man child the wealthy Armenian buys and buries a large jar
of wine, and this is not unearthed until the son’s coming of age or
marriage needs celebration. I should be glad to be present at one of
these feasts, as the wine of the country only requires to be kept long
enough to render it excellent.
Our own cellar on the march was all comprised in a goat’s-skin, about
the size when full of an ordinary pillow, with a wooden nipple at one
corner. This for safety’s sake I always carried on my own shoulders,
and used for a pillow at night.
Having refilled this portable cellar and thanked our hosts, we resumed
our ride across the table-land to the hills beyond. The day was
December 18, the air brisk and fresh, with scarcely any frost in it--so
mild indeed that during the ride I noticed several clouded yellow and
small copper butterflies. The only life on this table-land seemed to
be that of hawks and hooded crows, which were in great force. Duels
between kestrels and crows recurred continually, and to my surprise the
crow generally had the best of it. Once I came upon a grand specimen
of the falcon, and rode as near as I could to the place where he was
sitting, to get a shot at him, hoping to add him to my collection of
birds. To my surprise he let me come within a dozen yards of him, and
then wheeling slowly up, pitched some two hundred yards further off. I
followed him: again he waited, letting me come much closer before he
got up, and flying only a few yards before coming down again. This time
when I approached him he had evidently turned sulky, and absolutely
refused to budge until I struck at him with my whip, when he slowly
moved away with a dead quail still in his talons. I could not help
admiring his sullen pluck, so I left him to finish his dinner in peace.
Once out of the plain, the whole scene changed. This second range was
one of genuine mountains well wooded, full of loud-voiced rushing
torrents, tall columns of white mist, and hoary trees, from which
the beard moss hung in grey festoons. In front of us the lords of
Daghestan raised their glistening white crowns, so close as almost to
seem to overshadow us. After riding some miles along the side of one
of these watercourses, we came in the afternoon to a Tartar village,
famous for its silk. Here on all sides were fine orchards, magnificent
walnut trees, and endless rows of mulberries, on the leaves of which
the silk-worms are fed. The houses were of a different character to
those by the post-road and in the plain. No more mud huts, but rather
châlets, the lower half of composition (mud and stone) and the top
story of beam and wattle, covered by a wooden or thatched roof. As
we rode through the main street, women drew up their white wrappings
round their eyes, and scuttled away like rabbits as you pass through
their warren. On the outskirts of the village was a large graveyard
full of tall trees and grey old stones, on which the shadows fell;
while through the half light a woman, in the white robe peculiar to her
people, recalled a hundred and one ghost stories, which had frightened
me into good behaviour as a child.
Just outside the village I shot a fine grey squirrel, the first
squirrel I have seen in the Caucasus, where their skins are much
prized, the furriers of Tiflis demanding as much as one rouble
seventy-five copecks for such a skin as the one I secured. As the light
failed, and we were beginning to feel the corners and inequalities in
our saddles in a way that told us plainly how tired we were getting,
another village came in sight; and here we decided to rest, though
Allai did not by any means approve of the suggestion. On asking for
food we were politely cursed to our faces; and when at last, in
the middle of the bazaar, we found a ‘duchan’ (inn), it was of so
uninviting an aspect that a good appetite was necessary to tempt a
traveller inside it. Under a wide awning was a room open on three sides
to within some four feet of the ground, and inside this enclosure was
a kind of dresser sloping gradually from the back wall of the place
to the window ledge. On this the customers sat, whilst below them and
beside them the cooking of ‘sushliks’ went on. As soon as we were
inside and seated, a host of the worst-looking scoundrels I ever saw
swarmed round the place, to stare at and make remarks upon us. Never
were the lions in the Zoo more eagerly and impertinently watched at
feeding time than were we, and certainly never by such an ill-looking
set as the owners of the shifting eyes and high cheek-bones who surged
round us. The faces were worthy of a Chinese illustration of hell, and
I know of nothing else to which to compare them. In their anxiety to
get a good look at us, they even broke down the wooden walls of the
house. All the time their tongues were busy, and from the way in which
they constantly spat and gesticulated, their remarks could hardly have
been favourable to us. Unwisely I helped myself from my goatskin, which
gave great offence to the crowd, and evil and angry were the looks cast
upon us; so that I felt that if they could but know that it was pork
that filled out the sides of my saddle-bags, my fate would have been
an unpleasant one. My man at this juncture lost his temper, and became
abusive to a hook-nosed individual who had for some time past been
peering down his throat. All I could do was of no avail; Ivan would
not be pacified, and so angry did the ever-increasing crowd become
that I was not at all surprised when a messenger arrived from the
village governor or elder, warning us that we must on no account dream
of passing the night in the village, for that although he had every
desire to protect us, the people were beyond his control, and we should
inevitably get our throats cut. So, though the clouds were gathering
black, and the evening drawing in apace, we left the ‘duchan,’ and went
forward farther and farther into the shadows of the mountains, leaving
behind an angry murmuring crowd that for one rash act would have
worried us as terriers worry rats.
And now, as we trudged wearily up the pass, Allai rode up to me, and,
with many ejaculations, besought me not only to ride with my gun at
the ready, but the moment I caught a glimpse of a man behind either
bush or boulder to fire at him first, and ask questions after. His fear
was that some of the rascals of the village we had just left would
get on ahead, form an ambuscade, and fire upon us as we approached.
He himself was evidently determined to use his gun whenever he got a
chance; and, in spite of all I could say, made us all uncomfortable
by his nervousness throughout the journey; the more so, as we had
opportunities of seeing that in most things Allai was as hardy as other
men. All things have an end--even the windings of a mountain torrent;
and at last, when our limbs were aching with fatigue, a tiny hamlet in
the deepest recess of that shadowy ravine cheered us with the hope of
rest and refreshment. Two more minutes spent in warding off the attacks
of a clamorous host of dogs; then a door opens, a flaming brand is
held up, a swarthy face peers into the equally dusky countenance of
our guide, and amid many greetings, we are ushered into the one-roomed
cottage of a Lesghian Tartar shepherd.
Cushions and carpets were soon arranged by the hearth, slippers
being brought for me; and then the hospitable good fellows set to
work to serve us with their best. In the room were but few signs of
civilisation--nothing, in fact, that would have been strange in the
tents of the Ishmaelites of old. The men were rough and tanned to a
copper-colour by the winds and weather of their wild mountain home.
Their clothes were rough and ragged, and they were all armed to the
teeth, never laying their kinjals aside from sunrise to sunrise; but
their eyes were broad honest eyes, that looked the stranger steadily in
the face; their manner to me was deferential as to an honoured guest,
but perfectly self-possessed and confident.
The women of the house had retired on our entry, and for the whole of
our sojourn with these people, they remained in a kind of outbuilding
attached to the cottage, vouchsafing us only a rare glimpse of two very
pretty faces, which were lost to sight in the folds of their envious
mufflers almost before they were seen. After the chicken and rice had
been cleared away, two little Lesghian boys came in to have a look at
their father’s guests; and never in my life have I seen such sturdy,
handsome youngsters as these two sun-browned little shepherds of seven
and eight respectively. Early in the morning, before the sun had risen,
these two young mountaineers were astir, waked by the bell of Shaitan,
the long-bearded chief of their herd of goats. With crooks in hand, in
rough togas of sheepskin, I watched the fine little fellows leading
their hundred or more goats up steep mountain tracks, to pastures that
hung far above the hamlet in the glen; and often during the day we
caught glimpses of them and their charge on some precipitous pasture,
or heard the distant notes of the rough flutes with which they amused
themselves.
With such early training as this--taught at seven to rely on their own
resources, and take charge of such wilful beasts as goats on a mountain
pasture--it is small wonder that Lesghians have numbered amongst them
such leaders as Schamyl and Mansur Bey. Nor is it wonderful that,
passing year after year of their lives in the solitary grandeur of
their own mountains, they become the priest-led, superstitious people
they are. Schamyl the leader would have had but little influence had
he not also been Schamyl the prophet, the divinely protected. I have
frequently heard Russians say that the only reason that the Circassian
war lasted as long as it did was, that it was the policy of Russia to
keep the Caucasus as a training school for her young officers and raw
recruits; but, though this has been often repeated by men who were in
a position to know something of the matter, I would rather believe
that the fiery zeal, tough sinews, and impracticable mountain homes of
the Lesghians were the cause, than the calculating cruelty of their
enemies. Be that as it may, the Lesghians of to-day--such at least as
remain of them--are an honest race of sturdy mountaineers, who have
little love for Russia, and concern themselves in no way with the
outside world. Those with whom I stayed never travelled, even as far as
Goktchai, more than twice a year, and, I daresay, don’t know yet that
the Czar Alexander II. is dead. But the evil spirit that wrought his
shameful murder was never cherished in a Lesghian or Tscherkess bosom,
any more than in the breasts of his own Russian moujiks. I have known
the common people of Russia for three or four years, and known some of
them well: for it was ever my wont to put up in peasants’ huts, and
share the moujik’s black bread when out shooting near his village, and
I have never heard anything but love and respect for the Emperor from
a poor man yet. The moujik and the Tscherkess of to-day are not as
tongue-tied as some would have us believe; and very few indeed are the
great men of Russia whom they do not detest and abuse; but the Emperor
is still to them a loving father, in whose tender mercy--if they could
only get at it through the crowd of officials who fence him round, and
hamper the effects of his just will--the moujik entirely confides.
If those Russians with whom I have talked on Nihilism knew anything of
the subject, the Emperor’s great mistake was not the freeing of the
serfs--though by that he aroused the hostility of the wealthy boyar
class--but the reduction of the fees of the universities to such a
degree as to render a first-rate education possible to thousands who,
in after life, would have to fill positions for which they were too
highly educated, and in which their excessive education would only
create discontent. Is it not just possible that the excessive education
which we force upon the working classes of England at the present time
may have a somewhat similar effect? I plead guilty to knowing very
little of politics; but when I hear on all sides the complaint that
domestic servants are becoming an extinct race, having grown too fine
for the state of life to which (to quote the fine old catechism phrase)
it has pleased God to call them; when I hear of the difficulty of
obtaining agricultural labourers, or old-fashioned country servants;
when every woman can play the piano, and none can cook a potato, I
begin to wonder if education may not be carried too far, and whether
certain classes would not be happier without it, and their work better
done. There is an old adage that ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing;’ and even in England we cannot pretend to do more than give the
working classes that ‘little knowledge’ which produces the ill effects
that a perfect education might or might not cure.
But these are subjects beyond me, and I escape gladly to the mountain
side. When the first pale ray of the dawn crept through the one tiny
window of our ‘serai,’ we left our couches, and went down to lave
our hands and faces in the icy waters of the mountain torrent below.
During the night a slight fall of snow had made the valley white, and
a sharp frost had grizzled the long beard moss on the mountain trees.
We did not stay for breakfast, but just collected all our impedimenta,
determining to do two hours’ climbing before sitting down to eat and
drink, and fasten on those abominable iron claws, without which the
rest of the climb would be impracticable.
For one like myself, but little used to mountaineering, the first two
hours’ climb was very weary work; and when at last we stopped to rest
and breakfast, the high peaks seemed further off than ever. Growing
close to the boulder round which we breakfasted was a medlar-tree,
whose half frozen fruit was deliciously refreshing after our toil.
But Allai gave us little time to rest, so that having hurried through
our meal, and spent a few minutes in watching the sun battling his
way through the mountain mists, we fastened on the climbing-irons
and pursued our way up steep slopes covered with forests of beeches,
whose dry fallen leaves scattered from under our feet and revealed the
treacherous black ice beneath.
Here we came on bear tracks, and heard the cry of the red deer in some
beech woods on a neighbouring mountain side. As we peered over an abyss
we caught sight of three ‘marral,’ as the natives call them, far out of
shot on the other side. To get to them would have been a day’s work;
so we could only look and long; while the wild cry of another stag,
which we could not see, reverberated through the woods, and made our
hearts jump at the sound. Far down in the abyss the wooded tops of
smaller mountains rose like islands from a tumbling sea of clouds like
those we call woolsacks at home; a sea that, as evening approaches,
rises higher and higher, until the whole mountain top is submerged in
its cold waves. But here above the clouds, out of sight of the earth
which they hid, all was bright as an Italian summer, in spite of the
snow and ice, until four o’clock in the afternoon. Here, beautifying
the snowy forests by their presence, I found two varieties of primula:
one, the commonest, a deep lilac; the other, a pure white; we also
found some sweet violets, which, together with the primulas, made a
handsome bouquet for Christmas time. The trees in the woods we passed
through were almost entirely beech, everywhere covered with the beard
moss, which gave them a quaint old-world look; amongst them were a
few medlars and pears; while underfoot the blackberry briars made our
upward progress difficult. Bracken and ‘trichomanes’ were the only
representatives of the fern family which I noticed during the day.
On this our first essay on the mountain-side we only just reached the
upper edge of the wooded belt, and it was here, when we had scarcely
left the trees behind us, that I got my only shot during the day.
Passing through a small recess in the mountain-side, where all was
still dark and chill, the sun not having penetrated there since night
left it, I heard a bound and a rustle, and a chamois gave me a fair
running shot, of which I did not make the most, only wounding, and
eventually losing him, after a day wasted in pursuit. So we turned
back sore-footed and empty-handed, trudging down the mountain to the
rising mist waves that crept up to meet us, and, plunging into them,
felt for a time like men lost in the night, where neither the peaks of
the mountains above, nor the fires of the valley beneath, were visible
to us; where trees took weird shapes, like those in Doré’s pictures;
where all was dank, and dark, and chill, so that a half wonder grew
upon us as to whether anywhere down beneath a bright fire, cushions,
and comfort could be waiting for us.
At last the house fires glimmered from below like stars through a night
of fog, and hurrying on, slipping and stumbling over the wet grass,
sliding off our greasy leather stockings to bump along for twenty yards
or so on our aching shoulders, we reached our Lesghian house, and had
soon forgotten (except when the hateful clamps caught our eye) all the
petty tribulations which had interfered with our appreciation of the
magnificent mountain scenery.
These Lesghians lead a happy life, though (or perhaps, because) a
simple one. A flock of goats find shepherd’s work for the hardy
handsome boys to do. A field of corn just above the house on a little
table-land keeps the family in bread. A tree which grows in the
crannies of the rock, in appearance like a small sloe-bush, supplies
a decoction made from its root, and leaves so like tea as to have
deceived me into believing that it was what it seemed. The industry of
the women strews the floor with a superfluity of carpets, cushions, and
mats; makes slippers for the men, cloth for such clothes as are not
made of sheepskin, and a delicious drink from the medlars that grow on
the mountain. The mountain sends them down the purest of water, finds
them in unlimited fuel, and provides them with a dessert as varied as
that of the richest Russian in the land: medlars, beechnuts, chestnuts,
walnuts, pears, and berries of a dozen different kinds. Their religion
forbids them to drink wine, so that, never having used it, they do
not feel the want of it. Apples may be bought in the neighbouring
village of the largest size and most luscious quality for threepence
per hundred. Pheasants and red-legs abound, and are easily caught or
shot (though I never heard of snares being used for them), while red
deer and mountain sheep are for the bolder and stronger among the
young men. Wild swine come all too close to the cornfield in autumn,
and in slaying of these the Lesghian not only protects his harvest,
but obtains leather of the best quality for his mocassins. Bear’s fat
furnishes the lamps (made after the fashion of the sepulchral lamps
of Greece) with fuel; and the rheumatic patient with an external
application that beats Elliman’s embrocation out of sight; while those
who suffer from colds take it internally, as English people take
gruel, and, I dare say, with as good a result. From the beard moss the
Lesghian makes a dye with which to stain his hands, and make them a
manly brown, or ‘good fast washing colour,’ as the haberdashers have
it; while if he be a dandy, he borrows from it a darker hue for his
moustache, and for the solitary love-lock which his religion and his
barber permit him to retain. Best of all virtues, the Lesghians are
cleanly. In the whole of my stay amongst them, my night’s rest was
never broken by the antics of insect gymnasts or the attacks of burlier
foes.
The Sunday we spent in the mountain hamlet, each according to his own
fancy. Allai went at dawn into the higher peaks to look for traces of
game. Ivan spent his morning cross-legged on the floor washing clothes;
and at mid-day we all three met on an eminence some two hours’ climb
from the valley, to photograph some of the scenery with one of Rouch’s
patent dry-plate apparatuses. On our way we met the village hadji, who
was vastly interested, and promised to come in and see more of us and
our photographs in the evening.
In the valley the thermometer registered 70°, while on the higher
peaks, from which we tried to take photographs, it registered 54° in
the sun; meanwhile the grass below was matted with ice which showed
no signs of thawing. We gathered quite a fine bouquet on our way
up--primulas, violets, the white blossom of the wild strawberry,
forget-me-nots, crimson clover, and a single golden buttercup. As for
the photography, we chose some excellent views, and took them very
carefully, going away quite satisfied that those at home would be able
to share our enthusiasm for the scenery of Lesghia.
On our return we were met by an admiring crowd, amongst whom for a
few minutes one woman remained, curiosity in her case overcoming the
modest scruples of her race. We made the best of our opportunity, and
photographed her promptly; but alas! it was only the ‘baboushka.’
As the ‘baboushka’ is a variety of the female race to the best of my
knowledge unknown in England, I may as well take this opportunity of
describing her. She is quite an institution in Russia, no household
being complete without her. Generally she is the mother of the
paterfamilias, sometimes only his mother-in-law, at others merely an
aged female relative who wants a home and is willing to undertake the
housekeeping in return for one. Whatever she is, wherever she comes
from, there she is, the motive managing power of every moujik’s home:
in manner quiet, giving precedence to the wife, making no complaint
when the husband gets drunk, no stirrer-up of strife, no busybody,
but just a quiet old crone, with an eye on the children, an immense
capacity for drudgery, and sufficient experience to help the wife in
all her little troubles. Her corner is on the top of the ‘petchka’
(oven), whither she retires early in the evening, emerging thence to
get the samovar ready long before daylight. Her weaknesses are vodka
and the papiros, and her greatest happiness a village wedding, at which
she generally assists as one of a kind of chorus which I have described
before. It is needless to add, perhaps, that in appearance she is
sufficiently gruesome to hold the youngest child in awe of her.
Having photographed the ‘baboushka,’ we went in to our evening meal,
during and after which guests dropped in rapidly, until we had quite
a crowded reception. Photography was evidently the attraction; and as
soon as our pipes were lit the aged hadji moved that the photographs
be exhibited. To comply with this request it became necessary to
‘develop.’ Now to stand behind a tripod with a black rag over your
head, and direct the machine as required, Ivan and myself had found
fairly easy; but when with chemicals and other diablerie we had to make
manifest the results of our mumming on the hillside, we began to grow
nervous. Still we put as good a face upon it as we could, and made at
least a show of understanding what we were about. The fire-place was
covered over with a bourka, the lamp extinguished, and the wondering
guests seated in a circle, with strict injunctions not to shout above a
whisper or stir save at their peril. Then a candle was prevailed upon
to remain on an inverted dish within the threefold walls of a yellow
baize screen, whence it shed a ghastly light upon all the inmates
of the hut. Seated cross-legged, with a solemn face like an owl by
daylight, sat the chief photographer, and Ivan served him with a due
gravity. Bowls of water, and bottles of various baleful drugs, lent an
air of devilment to the whole scene, which, with the wild faces round,
was suggestive rather of witchcraft than photography. The first plate
produced having been carefully washed, was subjected to the developing
fluid. Thrice and four times was the dark liquid washed backwards
and forwards over the pure surface. Interest in our guests rose to
excitement; diffidence in ourselves to panic. To and fro, to and fro
went the black water, but no sign of any sublime peak or picturesque
village was slowly shadowed forth upon the glass.
Horrid suspicions began to take possession of us. Surely no mistake
could have happened this time. True, we remembered that on the only
other occasion on which we attempted photography we certainly did make
a group of Tartars miserably quiet for a quarter of an hour, in all
sorts of picturesque (and uncomfortable) attitudes in the main street
of Kertch; that we also kept ourselves and our friends’ servants at
work for two weary hours in preparations for developing, after which we
opened the slides and found that no plates had ever been inserted. But
this time there was no mistake about the plates. One after another we
opened the slides and poured the developing fluid over their contents;
but alas! none of that ‘flashing’ appearance of which Mr. Rouch so
emphatically speaks resulted therefrom. On the contrary, the surface of
the plates maintained an exasperating sameness in appearance.
At last, however, when almost all the plates had been laid by in
disgust, something dark which would not wash out, and so small that
even Allai could not quite manage to put his thumb exactly on it
at the first attempt, did appear. What applause it met with; what
speculations as to what it might represent. We distinctly remembered
to have photographed certain majestic snow-peaks, to do which we had
almost broken our hearts with uphill toil; we knew we had photographed
a village from a bend in a mountain torrent at the cost of wet feet;
but what was this? Could it be Allai’s hat? Might it be a back view
of the stooping Ivan? Could it possibly be a fancy portrait of the
photographer himself as he appeared under his robe of mystery?
Whatever it was, we explained to the credulous Lesghians that, after
undergoing a magnifying process at home, it would no doubt convey
a correct idea of the scenery of Daghestan to English minds. With
this explanation we were thankful to see they were content, and
silently resolved to give away our photographic apparatus at the first
opportunity.
The next entry in the rough log I kept at this time is made after
my return from Daghestan. On December 23, Ivan, Allai, two other
Lesghians, and myself started for the higher peaks, in which the tûr,
or mountain sheep, are said to dwell. After a day of hard climbing we
reached a ruined bothy used by mountain shepherds in the height of
summer, which marks the highest point to which any of the neighbouring
flocks attain even then. When we reached it, the roof had been partly
blown off, and the walls broken in; snow surrounded us as far as the
eye could see; snow had formed a drift inside the hut on the side
opposite the breach in the wall; snow in a broken wooden trencher was
being melted with difficulty over a wood fire in the middle of the hut
by one of our men for tea; while, without, the hard profiles of the
snow peaks surrounded us on all sides.
We had started that morning at five, and when we reached the bothy the
starlight was glimmering on the snow. Once during the day I had had a
glimpse of a flock of wild goats, in colour black, with fine horns and
tremendous beards. They were within 150 yards, and I might easily have
secured one, but unluckily was persuaded by my man to let them come a
little closer, so as to make assurance doubly sure. For a moment they
disappeared round a large boulder, and I waited for the leading goat to
appear on my side of the mass, determined to fire as soon as he did so.
But my hopes were doomed to disappointment. The next I saw of those
goats they were going like mad things down the mountain-side a quarter
of a mile off. Several times we saw tracks of bears, and once I heard
one scrambling away, within shot of me probably, but I could not catch
sight of him in time amongst the fir-trees. Another time we came upon a
steep ascent, from the top of which a shower of small stones apprised
us of the flight of three tûr; but though my men caught a glimpse of
them, they were too far off even had I seen them, which I did not. My
man Ivan had a long shot at a chamois and missed him, so that, after a
hard day’s climbing, we reached the bothy empty-handed.
Once fairly amongst the snow and ice on the bare rocks, cutting steps
for our ascent, and climbing rather with our hands than with our feet,
I did not so much mind it; though running across a rattling moraine as
it shifted from under us was a new and startling experience to me. The
almost perpendicular grass slopes which we had to cross before getting
clear of the forest were the greatest trials we had. Under the guidance
of Adolphe Folliguet, of Chamounix, I have since tried mountaineering
in Switzerland, after the tourists have all returned, and a few chamois
may be seen not further from Chamounix than the Aiguille Dru; but
though he does not choose the easiest tracks when in pursuit of his
favourite game, or stop too often to help his less goat-like followers,
I never crossed with him such difficult places as these Lesghian
grass-slopes. Too hard to give you any hold for your alpenstock, the
short fine grass slips from under the iron claws of your clamps; the
butt of the rifle slung across your shoulders comes in collision with
the steep bank and almost hurls you into space; the claws of the clamp
catch in your other boot as you cautiously pass one foot over another,
and at every step it seems a toss-up whether you go or stay.
It required, then, no small inducement to tempt me to continue my toil
when the end of the day’s journey had been reached. But the inducement
was there. As we stood for a moment at the door of the hut to take in
some of the grandeur of the scenery which surrounded us, seven glorious
red deer came tossing their heads as they followed one another round
the boulder of a neighbouring crag. Between us and them was a great
gulf fixed, which could only be crossed by a difficult and tedious
climb; but the stag’s magnificent head was a prize worth trying for;
so, tired though I was, I took one of the Tartars with me, and as
soon as the herd had passed behind a ridge, started on their track.
Following close in their steps, we had to cross a sheet of frozen snow
hanging like a pentice over the edge of a bottomless abyss. My guide
went first, scooping hollows with the butt of his rifle in which to put
his feet, and in his steps I followed with comparative ease, though it
required a good head to look down from our perilous pathway.
Still the excitement of the chase kept me up; and once across this long
stretch of snow the going was easy enough, until we came to a small
chasm which had to be crossed by jumping. Had we not looked too long
at it the jump would not have appalled us, as it was easily within the
powers of the most third-rate athlete. As it was, it was not without
a good deal of screwing up that I got myself to the sticking-point,
and gave my guide a lead across. After this I went on by myself, my
Lesghian going back, in despair of ever getting nearer to the deer. For
nearly an hour I continued to follow up the track, expecting every time
I peered over a ridge to find the herd in range just on the other side;
and so alluring was the chase that even now, looking back, I cannot
help feeling that if I had only gone on to that next bluff I should
have had my reward.
But the human frame won’t go on moving for ever, however much the will
may desire it to, and my unlucky limbs kept reminding me by certain
aches and stumbles that they had almost reached the limit of their
powers of endurance. So all unwilling I gave in and turned back. And
now my difficulties began. The climb back, like all such climbs,
seemed twice as long as it had appeared in coming. My eyes were getting
heavy and feet like lead. There was no game ahead to allure me forward,
no guide by my side to advise or direct my steps. I began to regret my
persistent pursuit of the red deer. Still, in spite of my fatigue, all
went well until I began to cross the roof-like sheet of snow between
myself and the hut. Here the light seemed worse than it had been in
coming, and the footholds hard to distinguish. When halfway across
I very nearly concluded my travels, not only for that night but for
ever. One of my feet slipped out of the hole in which I had placed it,
and brought me on my face on the snow. Instinctively I fell inwards,
driving my rifle-barrels with all my strength into the snow, and there,
for the worst minute of my life, I hung, one foot still in one of
the steps and the other leg hanging loose on the smooth surface, not
daring to lift myself, for fear lest any extra pressure should break
my remaining foothold or loosen the grip of my rifle in the snow, and
so send me trebogging down the slope, over the edge of which I should
infallibly shoot into eternity. However, it was Christmas Eve, and some
good angel buoyed me up; and when in fear and trembling I slowly made
the effort, I did with difficulty regain the upright position, and in a
few more minutes got off that treacherous snow-slope, with a feeling
of relief that almost compensated for the trouble it had cost me.
In the hut the scene was anything but suggestive of Christmas cheer.
Thawed snow and a little stale bread was our only fare; our only music
a bitter wind, until now unnoticed, that whistled through the gaps in
our walls. Even the Lesghians could not sleep, though they lay almost
in the embers of the fire, the pungent smoke from which effectually
blinded us for the time. All night long we moved about like wild beasts
in a cage, in a vain endeavour to keep warm. Now and then one of us
would sip the few drops of thawed snow from the half-burnt fragment of
the wooden bowl on the fire. Once or twice a few minutes’ sleep came to
us, but they were soon ended with a start and a shiver that effectually
brought us back from dreamland.
I don’t think any one slept that night: the stars were almost as bright
as ever when we left the hut to warm ourselves by exercise, and make
believe that a new day had begun. For some few minutes before we left
our bleak night’s lodging shrill whistlings on all sides had made me
believe that other human beings besides ourselves were astir. As our
eyes got accustomed to the light the true source of the noise was
revealed. All round us groups of that great grey bird the Lesghians
call the mountain turkey were busily feeding, and vigorously whistling
as they fed. Tame as they were, I found that shooting them in that dim
light with an ‘express’ rifle was no easy work, and the only one I
killed fell in a crevasse, in which we were obliged, hungry though we
were, to leave him. Had I tried when I first left the hut I might have
easily killed several, as they would let me approach within a dozen
yards of them, so tame were they. But at that early hour we had hopes
that along some one of the well-beaten tracks near the hut we might
see tûr or wild goat descending to the pastures below; and with this
possibility in view we let the turkeys alone until the coming dawn had
made them comparatively wild.
Before dawn we saw some birds which the mountaineers call black
pheasants--birds with a flight and shape in every way justifying
their name. These, as well as the turkeys, disappeared as if by magic
at dawn. The peaks, which had been loud with their calls and alive
with their bustling forms half an hour ago, were now still as if they
had never known them, and but for their tracks upon the snow, one
might have fancied they were mere nightmares which the daylight had
dispersed. The cause of their sudden disappearance Allai pointed out to
me in the forms of two broad-winged lammergeiers that came with the
first glow of morning, sailing on steady pinions round the mountain top.
Later on in the day, when, owing to lack of supplies and disaffection
amongst my men, I was retracing my steps to the valley, I saw more of
these mountain kings. We had stretched ourselves on a ledge of rock on
which the sun shone rather warmly, and, weary of climbing, were resting
in his cheering beams, when a shadow came between us and him, and
looking up, we saw the form of one of these bearded robbers hovering
over us. A bullet from my ‘express’ cut out a handful of his pinions;
for a moment the great bird staggered as if he was coming down, but,
to my chagrin, righted himself and sailed on, steady and calm as ever,
to finish his circuit round a neighbouring mountain top, and, crowning
insolence, to repass us exactly as he had passed before, except that
this time the bullet did not fly so near its mark.
My time was now getting short; so that though I had to leave my
mountain home empty-handed, I decided to pocket my failure, and return
at once to the post-road, to continue my journey to the Caspian. Had I
had a good guide, who was also a keen sportsman, a good stalking glass,
and had I come a month earlier, I am sure the result of my visit from
a sporting point of view might have been widely different. It is easy
to see that game is extremely plentiful, and I still look forward
to a good time coming, when, knowing my ground and my men better, I
may profit by my past experiences, and make a bag that any sportsman
might be proud of. It is, I believe, always very long odds against a
man making a large bag in a country utterly strange to him without
efficient guides.
My farewell to my Lesghian hosts had in it more of regret than
characterised my leave-takings generally in the Caucasus; and my
presentiments did not deceive me, for it was long before I met
with such a cleanly, hospitable home again. Christmas Day I spent
at Gerdaoul, where we had a deer drive among the mountains on a
pouring wet day, which made our style of sport peculiarly unpleasant.
Unluckily, Ivan shot a doe early in the day, and over the carcass of
this the whole band of Armenians--who were to us both beaters and
hosts--fought like dogs over a bone. Seeing there was no chance of
more sport that day, I left them to stab one another for a half pound
more or less of venison if they liked; and feeling a twinge or two of
rheumatism, trudged on towards Goktchai, leaving Allai to follow with
the horses.
At one of the villages on my way back I was met by a deputation, asking
me to sanction the release of a wretched Tartar, who had applied some
abusive language to me on my journey to the Lesghian hamlet, of which,
in my ignorance of the dialect, I had been utterly unconscious. It
seems Allai had found time to send over to the elder of the village,
representing me as a prince under the protection of the Russian
Government, and on his representations the poor devil had been confined
in a miserable dark hut ever since. Of course I gave the necessary
sanction, though I felt that it might be as well not to correct Allai’s
mistaken notion of my position until I was safe again in Goktchai. I
may here mention that, though we luckily escaped without molestation,
we were continually advised to take an escort; and even Allai secured
one at his own expense to see his brother and horses safe back to the
post-road when he left us with the Lesghians. The Lesghians themselves
never leave their houses without one well-armed man to protect their
goods from the pilfering Tartars, who abound in these little-visited
regions. I am thus particular in mentioning these things, in order that
no one who may be led to follow in my steps may come to grief through
a want of proper caution, induced by my good luck. On our way back to
Goktchai I saw one of the beautiful Dalmatian creepers which sometimes
occur here, though Allai assured me they are by no means common.